2012 and what we can make in 2013

2012, no major injuries was a plus. Thought a lot, read a fair amount; worked for a good number of interesting people. Rode a lot too and raised over a thousand pounds for MSF, thanks to those of you who donated. Learnt a lot about me too, so 2013 is time to write and make a bit more.

I'm really interested in flow and how organisations and people don't the systems they are creating, but instead see the features of those systems. I've been using Activity Theory as a framework to understand and explain how this works, but also looking at Dan Hill's strategic design book and revisiting service design as an approach. We are now in a position to build interesting services rather than just do the digital bit or make a app. The digital bit now can change the whole scope of a project, well beyond being mere marketing. The work going on at GDS is a strong example of this sort of approach, but it can be applied at smaller scales than a whole country. The talk I gave at Ignite Strava was driving at this, don't look at the data, look at the behaviour which drives the activity which generates the data. Support the behaviour and that will help to determine which activities are important and which lead to generating good reusable data.